This has been an exciting morning – and, as I start today’s blog post, it’s only just gone 9am!
I’ve been printing out copies of Sugar Loaf Cardigan – 20 copies will be going with me to Buxton Wool Gathering this weekend. The pattern will also be going live online tomorrow!
Sugar Loaf Cardigan has been a big piece of work for both me and my amazing tech editor, Deb Bramham. The pattern contains 20 sizes, each of which has 2 length options, so there are 40 different possible size variations. And the pattern fits neatly into 12 pages of A4.
I created this design as a result of customer feedback – so many people were disappointed that Honeybun Cardigan was a design for children and only went up to Age 8, that I promised I would make an adult version. I used the same yarn, Rowan Summerlite 4ply with a new colourway. As with the child’s version, the body is made in one piece and the sleeves are knit flat separately, seamed and joined to the body. The sleeves are a hybrid of inset and raglan design, just like the original Honeybun, with cute shoulder shaping at the top of the sleeve cap.
I also have to give a shout-out to The Button Box, Devon. I got the gorgeous metal buttons for Sugar Loaf Cardigan from them at East Anglia Yarn Festival.
The first inside page of the pattern lists all the sizing details along with the schematics. I will be adding this as a picture to the online info so folk can see if the design will work for them before committing to buying it. Sizing info is important – and we need to know more than just a chest measurement in order to know if a design will fit us.
You may notice the term ‘9-14cm positive ease’ in the first sentence of the image above. That means the garment will be between 9-14cm bigger at the full chest than a person’s body, depending on the size. Negative ease would mean the garment measurement is smaller than the actual body measurement – for a garment that would only work for stretchy fabric designed to fit snuggly! I imagine the only time I’ll be using negative ease in designs is for sock or mitt cuffs or the brims of hats like berets, where stretchiness is an important part of making the item fit or stay on/up.
Last week I was talking about my epic alpaca knitting and I was hoping to have finished the third part and maybe even made a start on the fourth and final part of it by today. Well, I am very pleased to report that I finished the third part on Friday and last night I got to the half way point of part four! So, at this rate, I may even have finished it by next Tuesday!
There are definite advantages to being the passenger in a car when you’re a knitter, and the M25 decides to be VERY slow. That was Friday on the way to Kent (the day after Sue’s AMAZING book launch in Worcester). I also got quite a lot done on the way home on Saturday. For some reason the sat nav took us up the M11 towards Cambridge and then on to the A14, rather than our usual M1 route to the M6, but it was a pleasant and quietly uneventful drive!
We are learning to trust any unusual routing the Apple Maps sat nav suggests after blithely ignoring it on the way to East Anglia last month where we ended up trying to drive down terribly frosty/icy lanes at 6am because the road we had expected to be on was actually shut for repairs. The sat nav knew about the road closure and that was why it was trying to take us a different route from our usual one!
Woolly Wormhead has a book out and I am hoping to get a copy tomorrow from Yarn O’clock. It is called Short Row Colorwork Knitting, the Definitive Stitch by Stitch Guide and is published by Sixth & Spring Books.
Woolly is even going to be coming to the UK for a book tour to celebrate its launch with events at RiverKnits Open Day in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, on Sunday 19th May and at For The Love Of Yarn in Glasgow on Sunday 26th May. Sadly, I’m not able to get to either of these events myself, but if you are, I recommend going!
Of course, the reason I can’t get to the RiverKnits Open Day is that it’s the same weekend as Buxton Wool Gathering. If you can’t come Buxton but you’d like to see my designs and kits in person, I’ll also be at the North Wales Wool and Fibre Festival in Bangor, North Wales, on June 1st, Wool@J13 in Staffordshire, June 29th-30th and the Pop-up Wool Show in Port Sunlight, August 17th. I will also have a stand at Yarn Gathering in Mold on September 15th which myself and Anne from Yarn O’clock are organising and is returning for its 3rd year, and there’s one more large yarn show I’ll be exhibiting at this year too…!
Right, that’s enough for today! Have a good week if you can and do some stuff that makes you happy. Take care, K x